Calvary Road Baptist Church

“MORNING DEVOTIONS”

Psalm 63.1-2 

My text is Psalm 63.1-2: 

1 A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah. O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is;

2 To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary. 

How many life-changing decisions can a person make in a week? How many different spiritual issues can one person, after all, a human being, be expected to deal with at one time effectively? I am of the opinion that the answer is “not very many.” Or, better yet, “one important issue at a time.”

One of the problems with decisionism, besides its erroneous notion of how people are saved, is that decisionism is usually accompanied by a wrong view of how change comes to a Christian’s life after conversion occurs.[1] This is to be expected since most so-called Christians are lost people who entertain false hopes.[2]

Without explicitly addressing the theology of how a Christian grows in grace and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, how a Christian grows and matures and becomes more Christ-like, I want this evening to lay before you an approach to life that will gradually and persistently, that will Scripturally and spiritually, change your Christian life.

This evening, I am not asking you or expecting that you will make any life-changing decisions as a result of the truths we will handle—quite the contrary. What we will deal with tonight will result in incremental adjustments, almost microscopic alterations, in your approach to the Christian life, godliness, and spirituality.

The Sunday morning messages I preach from God’s Word from time to time are designed to strip away the false assurance that false professors of religion have and that most genuinely converted people also have. My goal in such cases is that false assurances, or presumptions, will be abandoned in favor of genuine assurance. Morning messages are properly responded to by deeply reflecting on the confidence those of you who claim to be Christians have. But tonight’s message requires little introspection to respond to and only a slight alteration of behavior.

I want you to spend some time with God every morning. I know your evening Bible reading time may be important to you, and your time in the Bible with your kids or with your mom or dad is valuable. But what I would like to persuade you to do is something whose importance is exceeded only by your regular and faithful attendance at Church.

In First Timothy 4.7, the Apostle Paul reminded Timothy to “exercise thyself rather unto godliness.” The word “exercise” translates from the Greek word from which our word gymnastics is derived and refers to training and hard work. But the word that lays back tonight’s message is “godliness,” which is the Greek word eὐsέbeia.

Though translated as “godliness” in this verse, this verse does not so much refer to God-like-ness but to a different aspect of godly behavior and attitude, the deep reverence and respectful attitude a person is supposed to have for God. And this reverence and deep respect for God comes by the force of habit, not usually by some supposedly life-changing mystical experience that occurs while you are lying on your father’s grave one night.[3] Do you want to begin, a little step at a time, to give to God the deep reverence and respect that He deserves? Good. Then let’s learn from the sweet psalmist of Israel in Psalm 63.1-2: 

“A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah.” 

I am of the decided opinion that even these comments and titles found with many psalms are, themselves, inspired since they seem to have always been with the Psalms, as nearly as we can tell from the time they were penned. When did David pen this particular psalm? There were two times in his life that we know of him being in the Judean wilderness. First, when he was running from King Saul, who was tracking him down to kill him, and second when he fled from his son, Absalom, who tried to overthrow him. A glance at verse 11 suggests that this psalm was penned after he had become king, presumably when he was running for his life from Absalom.

Let’s think about this for a moment. David had been a weak and ineffective father to his children. Children sometimes despise a weak father. David is now an old man. Surprise, surprise, he is running for his life. If his son’s soldiers catch him, they will certainly kill him on the spot and without any hesitation. So, we are confronted with a Psalm that deals with a man's life caught up in the most chaotic and tumultuous experiences he has ever known.

Betrayal. Disloyalty. Rebellion. Danger. Intrigue. Responsibility. Turmoil. Confusion. Stress. Fatigue. Anxiety. Duty. And some of you think you have it tough. Are you getting the picture of a man backed into a corner by his reluctance and timidity with his son? The stakes are very high, indeed.

With his hectic schedule, stress, anxiety, fear for his own life and the lives of those loyal to him, lack of sleep, and primitive living environment, what does David do? He should have presented as a stronger and more courageous father to his son. But it is too late for that. But it is never too late for God, so David turns his heart.

Let’s let David tell us in his own words: “early will I seek thee.” Fatigue will not prevent David from seeking God early. Insufficient sleep will not prevent David from seeking God early. Confusion, chaos, and pressing crisis situations that howl for his attention will not prevent David from seeking God early. An army of killers seeking his life will not prevent David from seeking God early.

Imagine Harrison Ford as Dr. David Kimball, the fugitive being pursued by a federal marshal, Tommy Lee Jones. Yet, before he does anything else every morning, Dr. David Kimball seeks God. His life and the lives of others are on the line, yet he takes the time to seek God early. That’s the picture I want in your mind.

I want to spend a few minutes suggesting why you should do what David did, why you should do whatever it takes to make it a habit of life, and why you should spend some time every morning, first thing, seeking God. Better sooner than later. 

First, SEEK GOD FIRST BECAUSE GOD IS IMPORTANT 

Is anyone more important than God? Is anything more important than God? I know that you may be a late person and not an early person. I think it unlikely that there is anyone in this Church who is less a morning person and more a late person than I am.

My brain doesn’t work as well in the morning as it does in the evening, no matter when I go to bed or wake up. Perhaps you are the same way, and for that reason, you like to put off your serious Bible reading and prayer time until the evening. I understand that, and that’s okay.

But you don't wash the dishes when your house is on fire. Why not? Getting the fire out is more important, a more pressing need, a more urgent task. So, you call the fire department, turn on the garden hose, and concern yourself with washing the dishes later.

King David had many pressing duties and details. He was on the run. He had many people to take care of. He had critical decisions to make. And he was an old man doing all of these taxing things. Yet, because God is most important, God must be sought early.

And you, too. For no other reason than because God is most important, and because you must live the truth and not just know the truth, seek God early. And though others will benefit from the importance you attach to honoring God in this way, which I will speak to at another time, don’t seek God early for that reason. Seek God early because He is too important not to fix your first thoughts of each day upon. 

Second, SEEK GOD FIRST BECAUSE GRACE IS NEEDED 

What is grace, my friend? Grace is God’s enablement. Grace is God’s help through the day. Grace is God working in your life to produce the sweetness characteristic of the Spirit's fruit. Grace is that which God supplies that provides salvation to the sinner and sanctification to the saint.

Let me remind you of something I’ve taught you many times before. In Romans 5.6, we read: 

“For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.” 

The word “without strength” translates into a Greek word meaning impotent, helpless, which is also found in Romans 6.19: 

“I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh.” 

So, what makes the difference between impotence before conversion, which is Romans 5.6, and impotence after conversion, which is Romans 6.19, so the Christian life can be lived so that God can be served? Grace, my friend. God’s grace. God’s supply. God’s provision to those who are in Christ.

First Corinthians 1.4-8 reveals much about God’s grace: 

4 I thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ;

5 That in every thing ye are enriched by him, in all utterance, and in all knowledge;

6 Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you:

7 So that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ:

8 Who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

Because of the press of time, let me summarize this passage: God is to be thanked for His grace, for it is by God’s grace that you have come to the state of blessedness in your life wherein you now stand, verse 4. What you are, you are by the grace of God, to borrow Paul’s phraseology from another text, verse 5. Christian, God’s grace was available to you in the past for verse 6 to be true. And God’s grace will take you to glory, verses 7 and 8.

So, God’s grace is profoundly important in the life of every believer. And God’s grace works in every Christian’s life in ways we will not fully understand until we get to heaven. But for some needs, Christian, you have to appropriate a measure of God’s grace each and every day. And it is when you seek God early, that you will find your best opportunity to see that need met.

What subtle arrogance is displayed by that person who is so lazy, indifferent, and so casual about the Christian life and its importance that he feels no need to seek God’s grace. 

Third, SEEK GOD FIRST BECAUSE YOUR MIND NEEDS RENEWING 

I call your attention to Romans 12.1-2: 

1  I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. 

When is a Christian to present his body a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is his reasonable service? 

You do not deal with the matter of conforming to the world after you’ve wallowed in it all day at work. Neither do you work on proving what the good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God for your life is after you’ve lived the day.

The Christian life is first lived in the human mind, so the mind needs to be attended to. Is that to be done with a prayer to God and spending time in his word after the day is done? Or so you are prepared to take on the day ahead of you? The answer is obvious, is it not? 

Finally, SEEK GOD FIRST BECAUSE IMPORTANT DECISIONS NEED TO BE MADE IN ADVANCE 

Are you going to commit adultery with a woman at work? Will you drink a beer at lunchtime? Will you laugh at a dirty joke? Will you steal if you get the chance? Decisions not to do those things are decisions that are rightly made early in the morning when you are meeting with God. The decisions to do right, to witness, to pray over meals, to read the Bible to the kids when you get home are also rightly made in the morning.

“A recent survey of 200 pastors who committed adultery or other immoral acts found they had something other than immorality in common, in that none of them had a regular quiet time in fellowship with God.”[4]

Ladies, I can almost guarantee that anyone’s husband will be committing adultery, will be looking at online pornography, will be watching R-rated videos, will be taking drugs, or drinking booze (or who knows what?) if he has no personal, private, devotional time with God.

And what you will be up to without a personal, private, devotional life of your own is anyone’s guess. Women are statistically less prone to adultery but still quite capable of it. What else might you do? Gossip? Backbite? Gripe and complain and otherwise destroy your own home? Who knows?

Rather than take such risks, why not decide to serve God? Why not decide to do right? Why not decide not to laugh at dirty jokes? Why not decide not to look at that one woman who shows off her various body parts at work like a New Orleans streetwalker?

In addition to making decisions about the pitfalls and temptations that you know you are likely to face every day, 

Is there a good reason not to seek God early, to begin with, God before you do anything else? No good reason that I can think of. First, God is important. Second, you need grace for each day. Third, your mind needs renewing. And finally, you need a time each day to decide to do right and to decide to not do wrong.

Is there a better time and occasion for each of these reasons than a time each morning in communion with God in prayer and His Word? Set your alarm earlier than normal for tomorrow morning. Pick out a passage from God’s Word tonight before you go to bed to read tomorrow morning, and set up yourself a place somewhere to do it. Then, tomorrow morning, read God’s Word for five minutes. Five minutes! Then spend five minutes, bowing before God in reverence and prayer to pay homage to Him, to praise Him, to tell Him you love Him.

Make that the habit of your morning each and every day, for the rest of your life. That little but important step will result in your transformation.

__________

[1] Decisionism is the belief that a person is saved by coming forward, raising the hand, saying a prayer, believing a doctrine, making a Lordship commitment, or some other external, human act, which is taken as the equivalent to, and proof of, the miracle of inward conversion; it is the belief that a person is saved through the agency of a merely external decision; the belief that performing one of these human actions shows that a person is saved. 

 Conversion is the result of that work of the Holy Spirit which draws a lost sinner to Jesus Christ for justification and regeneration, and changes the sinner’s standing before God from lost to saved, imparting divine life to the depraved soul, thus producing a new direction in the life of the convert. The objective side of salvation is justification. The subjective side of salvation is regeneration. The result is conversion.

[2] Matthew 7.21-23

[3] So claimed the late Jack Hyles.

[4]David W. Cloud, Are You Meeting With God And Feeding On His Word?, e-mail sent to FBIS Mailing List on April 17,2002 @ 1:42 AM.

 

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